Yesterday I joined the Steam client beta and today I noticed that I cannot launch any games or modding tools.

I keep getting the following error message:

Quote:

The program can't start because steam_api.dll is missing from your computer. Try reinstalling the program to fix this problem.

I tried verifying integrity of local files for the modding tool and the files were validated.

I also tried checking for updates to the steam client. There were no updates available.

I tried opting out of the Steam client beta. The Client updated and rolled back to the non-beta version. However, I am still getting the same error message.

Any suggestions? Do I need to uninstall the Steam client? (wouldn't that delete all my games and tools?)

Can I simply download the steam_api.dll file from somewhere?

EDIT: I noticed that only one game and the associated modding tool was affected. I tried to verify the integrity of local files for that specific game and it turned out that one file was missing and needed to be reacquired. After it was downloaded, both the game and the modding tool worked! problem solved.